It was in both 2016, as well as 2017, that “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profiled the sitting U.S. House Representative for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District, Barry Loudermilk, who after serving in the Georgia state legislature for about eight years. Loudermilk defeated a clown car full of several Republicans in the primary for his seat in the 2014 elections to replace Phil Gingrey. Before Loudermilk was even sworn in to serve in the House, he was hanging out with the Family Research Council on their program as well, being interviewed by the running joke about hypocrisy that is Josh Duggar, where Loudermilk lamented the suffering he and his fellow Christians have had to endure as “the left in America have so badly damaged the holiday of Christmas”.Loudermilk was quickly hot-shotted to be the GOP’s new head of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee after being sworn in. and became the latest in a list of Republicans who seemed like they were given the job ironically when at his first town hall, Rep. Loudermilk was asked by a constituent if vaccines are linked to autism and he began boasting that he hadn’t vaccinated his children. After this unprecedented gaffe, there were even Republican strategists calling for Loudermilk’s resignation. This was in his SECOND MONTH on the job. The crazy part, though, is that isn’t even the weirdest exchange from the town hall. Oh, no. Because for whatever reason, Loudermilk started discussing immigration with another constituent, who suggested the United States should “learn something from Afghanistan and start putting IUDs in the ground”. Now, that’s a weird idea for two reasons… the first being that she probably didn’t mean IUDs, which are a form of birth control, but probably meant IEDs, or “improvised explosive devices”. That seemed to be how Loudermilk interpreted her suggestion, to which he only objected because AMERICANS might get hurt. Any Mexican children that might find one of these rigged charges? Serves ‘em right for sniffing a chunk of real estate in the land of the free, man! But in that disastrous town hall, Loudermilk clearly wasn’t misspeaking when he voiced his fears that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the American government enough that they have gained access to the White House. He went on to elaborate and say that the Republican caucus of the House looked at ways to arrest Attorney General Eric Holder, before insinuating that the Council on American-Islamic Relations was a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot. In March 2016, right on the heels of the terror attacks in Brussels, Loudermilk spoke before the House and explained what the real problem in winning the war on terror was… “political correctness”, which he felt was somehow the cause of the deaths of Americans, because we are too afraid to hurt the feelings of terrorists. At Loudermilk’s next town hall in July of 2015, he responded to the news of the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church, and how as a result, the South Carolina state legislature had voted to take down the Confederate flag in their state capitol. Well, apparently David Barton’s tendency to re-write false histories is contagious, and Barry Loudermilk has also caught that disease. You see, as Loudermilk explained, he thought the shooting was motivated by anti-Christian hate (and not racism, like Dylann Roof actually was). Instead, Loudermilk pivoted the talk to being about gay marriage, comparing it to slavery by saying, “Hey, it was the Supreme Court’s opinion that Dred Scott and slavery was okay, did they get that right?” While his voting record might not stretch on that long, Loudermilk has already voted to defund the Department of Homeland Security over President Obama’s delayed deportation orders on immigration, voted to try and defund Planned Parenthood based on the “sting” videos provided by the Center for Medical Progress, voted to try and block Syrian refugees from being resettled in the United States by supporting the SAFE Act and enjoys hanging out with anti-Islamic lunatic Frank Gaffney on his radio show to fearmonger about Muslim refugees.
- March 16th, 2017: Barry Loudermilk votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order. We feel safer already.
- March 28th, 2017: Rep. Loudermilk votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers’ internet usage to businesses. Well, so much for privacy.
- May 4th, 2017: Loudermilk votes for the House GOP’s healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), post-partum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Loudermilk would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
- June 8th, 2017: Barry Loudermilk votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
- June 14th, 2017: Loudermilk responds to the attempt on the lives of several members of Congress at the annual Congressional Baseball game’s practice field by griping about how he and other lawmakers aren’t allowed to carry a gun into the Capitol Building to defend themselves.
Apparently having armed police with him as security isn’t satisfactory.
- September 8th, 2017: Rep. Loudermilk chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
- October 3rd, 2017: Loudermilk votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
- December 19th, 2017: Barry Loudermilk votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
Georgia’s 11th Congressional District has a +19 lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, so it seems like a pretty high likelihood that Barry Loudermilk will be able to weasel his way into a third term in office. His challenger is Democrat Flynn Broady, Jr., an Army veteran and Solicitor General of Cobb Country Georgia. He’s got his work cut out for him, but then again, Loudermilk has been undoubtedly awful as a Congressman to level the playing field.
One Year Ago, March 31st, 2017: Barry Loudermilk (GA)… 2017 Update
Two Years Ago. March 31st, 2016: Barry Loudermilk (GA)… Original Profile
Three Years Ago: March 31st, 2015: Randy Brogdon (OK)